Abstract

Due to anatomical and biomechanical similarities to human shoulder, kangaroo was chosen as a model to study shoulder cartilage. Comprehensive enzymatic degradation and indentation tests were applied on kangaroo shoulder cartilage to study mechanisms underlying its strain-rate-dependent mechanical behavior. We report that superficial collagen plays a more significant role than proteoglycans in facilitating strain-rate-dependent behavior of the kangaroo shoulder cartilage. By comparing the mechanical properties of degraded and normal cartilages, it was noted that proteoglycan and collagen degradation significantly compromised strain-rate-dependent mechanical behavior of the cartilage. Superficial collagen contributed equally to the tissue behavior at all strain rates.This is different to the studies reported on knee cartilage and confirms the importance of superficial collagen on shoulder cartilage mechanical behavior. A porohyperelastic numerical model also indicated that collagen disruption would lead to faster damage of the shoulder cartilage than when proteoglycans are depleted.